Majority Either Like Healthcare Law Or Want It More Liberal

A guide to the legal arguments over the individual mandate
Kevin Sack has a clear and useful overview of the legal arguments over the Individual Mandate that I've seen. As a sort of disclaimer, readers should know that I consider the legal arguments to be little more than motivated skepticism: If the national expansion of RomneyCare had been signed into law by President Romney, it'd be having no trouble with conservative judges and political figures. But the same can, of course, be said about policy arguments, which are often chosen at random to suppor...

Obama works around Congress on healthcare, climate change policy
Republicans are preparing an array of budgetary, legislative and political strategies to fight regulatory action by President Obama. Without Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a majority in the House, Obama is expected to rely heavily on his executive power to influence policy over the next two years. To counter that effort, Republicans hope to cut off funding for the new healthcare law and, through Legislation, to block efforts by agencies to regulate greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Intern...

Ticket Replay: Ohio Republican John Kasich caught telling a true story in governor's race
During the Holiday Season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on Sept. 17, 2010 (Kasich won, btw): You know how politicians often tell stories about the precocious thing their young daughter said about The Economy when no other witnesses were around? Or the unfortunate woman they happened to meet who needs precisely the kind of program the pol is selling to his audience that very night? A...

The Plum Line: The odd GOP compulsion to punish Democrats retroactively
My favorite in this genre, the all-time classic, is the 22nd Amendment, which Republicans passed to punish FDR by prohibiting Ike, Reagan, and W. from serving a third term. (Okay, granted, the only one who realistically had a shot of a third term has been Clinton, but still...) The newest? Punishing Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by legislatively prohibiting future lame-duck sessions of Congress. Never mind that it's a silly idea; as Matt Yglesias correctly tweeted, "They realize hypothetic...

CNN Poll Finds Only 38% Support for Obamacare Mandate
If President Obama and Democrats could strip the Individual Mandate from ObamaCare, support for it would rise significantly. Of course, they can't do that without removing provisions of the bill that actually are popular. If you eliminate the mandate, you have to allow consideration of Pre-existing Conditions. Imagine how much automotive Insurance would cost if you weren't required to buy it, but could purchase it after a wreck and have your Insurance company pay the bills. The entire law is fat...

Government spending battles expected to dominate Congress next year
Despite that the lame-duck session was a productive period of legislating, it did have its shortcomings — Congress failed to pass a one-year appropriations bill while agreeing on a continuing resolution to fund the government until March. That means the new, divided Congress will make decisions about how to appropriate funding for the implementation of the Health Care reform law and Financial Regulation, both of which did not receive attention in the temporary funding resolution. The Hill ...

Peter Wehner: Right Wing Groups Boycott CPAC Meeting Due to Gay Rights Group's Involvement
As reported in various outlets, several groups -- including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America -- are boycotting the 2011 Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference because CPAC is allowing GOProud, a conservative gay-rights organization, to be a sponsoring organization (one of more than 70). This strikes me as a bad idea on several levels. As Ed Morrissey points out, CPAC brings together a variety of conservative groups holding different beliefs. They i...

No More Mister Nice Blog
THE Senate'S ARBITRARY "HIGHER STANDARD" IS UNDEMOCRATIC AND KIND OF SILLY Apparently it's Right Wing Concern Trolling Week here, as Jennifer Rubin becomes the latest maven to scold the left, this time on the subject of Senate Filibuster reform. Those planning on tinkering with Senate rules are well advised to do some serious thinking about the Unintended Consequences of their desire to give the Senate majority more power. So long as McConnell, 46 other Republicans and a slew of nervous red sta...

Krauthammer Warns Against Defunding Health Law: Will Lead To Chaos And Incoherence
As Republicans prepare to defund parts of the Affordable Care Act in the new Congress, conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer is warning Conservatives that the strategy could lead to “chaos” and “incoherence” in the Health Care system. During an appearance on Fox’s Special Report on Monday, Krauthammer suggested that the GOP would be better off by holding hearings to “expose” the measure and orchestrating symbolic Repeal vo...

How Important Is "Earmark" Reform?
If overall federal spending isn’t reduced, then rallying around a Moratorium on “Earmarks” is pointless. So says Senator-elect Roy Blunt, anyway. In the exchange below, Blunt remarks that the Republicans in the House already had a freeze on inserting those very unpopular “porky” items into pieces of Legislation, yet spending wasn’t reduced a single penny. “The goal here should be spending and reducing spending, as opposed to letting the President decide...

India makes new attempt to break political impasse
The speaker of the Indian parliament called together all political parties on Thursday to try to end a legislative deadlock over a massive telecoms graft Scandal. The impasse, caused by daily opposition Protests, paralysed parliament during its entire five-week winter session that ended on December 13 and now threatens the Budget session beginning in February. The Protesters, led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have vowed to continue their demands for a cross-party Probe into t...

Letter from rabbis' wives urge Israeli girls to avoid dating Arabs
Israeli right-wing Activists Protest in Jerusalem on 23 December in support of a letter forbidding Jews from selling or renting property to non-Jews. From Shira Medding , CNN A letter from about 30 prominent rabbis' wives was causing a stir in Israel Wednesday because it urges Israeli girls not to date Arabs. The Open Letter comes three weeks after the uproar caused by another letter, which was written by 50 state-appointed rabbis and told Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews. Th...

CNN Poll: Support For ObamaCares Individual Mandate Hits All-Time Low, 38%
The poll comes after a Virginia Federal Judge appointed by President George W. Bush struck down the provision, dealing the Obama Administration’s healthcare law its first major defeat in the courts. Experts expect the dispute to reach the Supreme Court; two previous challenges to the mandate were defeated in Virginia and Michigan by judges appointed by President Clinton. The individual Health Insurance mandate is regarded as a central element of the law, but the administration has...

AP-GfK Poll: Baby boomers worried about Medicare
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anxious to receive their Medicare benefits after years of paying taxes into the system, Baby Boomers say they’re willing to sacrifice to preserve the scope and level of coverage. The first boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds them worried about the future of the giant Health Care program that has helped their parents and grandparents live longer, healthier lives in Retirement. By a ratio of 2-to-1, baby...

AP-GfK Poll: Baby boomers worried about Medicare
WASHINGTON—Anxious to receive their Medicare benefits after years of paying taxes into the system, Baby Boomers say they're willing to sacrifice to preserve the scope and level of coverage. The first boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds them worried about the future of the giant Health Care program that has helped their parents and grandparents live longer, healthier lives in Retirement. By a ratio of 2-to-1, Baby Boomers say...

AP-GfK Poll: Baby boomers worried about Medicare (AP)
WASHINGTON – Anxious to receive their Medicare benefits after years of paying taxes into the system, Baby Boomers say they're willing to sacrifice to preserve the scope and level of coverage. The first boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds them worried about the future of the giant Health Care program that has helped their parents and grandparents live longer, healthier lives in Retirement. By a ratio of 2-to-1, Baby Boomers ...

New Year's Resolutions For The 112th Congress
It's almost 2011. In some ways, the "hope," "change," and "yes we can" shenanigans of the 2008 Presidential Election seem like they were born just yesterday. But the actions of a President who has added more to our National Debt than George Washington through Ronald Reagan combined have been in progress for far too long. It's time for a new team of fiscally responsible leaders to enter the scene and start cleaning up the mess. In the spirit of a rapidly approaching 2011, here are a few New Year...

False alarm
This story is just another example of scaremongering and anti-Democratic bias (“ObamaCare a death knell for health savings,” Dec. 28). This Legislation just closes a very small tax Loophole; it does not, as some of your readers think, require Taxpayers to pay for their Health Insurance with post-tax dollars. The projected revenue gain from closing this loophole is $5 billion over 10 years, or $500 million annually. This works out to about $1.50 per American annually, har...

Newark mayor using robust Twitter presence to reach snowed-under residents
Newark Mayor Cory Booker has been battling the snow on his city's streets tweet by tweet - and getting a lot of attention doing it. This Story Bloomberg vs. Booker: The mayoral dig-out tweets Newark mayor using robust Twitter presence to reach snowed-under residents Mayor: New York fell short on Snow Removal Since the Sunday storm that dumped about two feet of snow on the Newark area, he has helped lift cars, shoveled driveways and promised to send road crews to clear neighborhood streets aft...

What Republicans have done and what they need to do
Posted by CNN on Dec 30 2010 Filed under Political Briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Click here to cancel reply. Anybody seen $8 million in missing CDC equipment? We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, br...

Why doesnt CNN hold Fran Townsend to the Octavia Nasr standard?
John Edelstein writes: Last Wednesday, a group of prominent Bush-era Republicans, including former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former White House adviser Frances Townsend and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, flew to Paris (per TPM) to speak in support of MEK, a Marxist Iranian exile group there -- one that's been designated an official Terrorist Organization by the U.S. (Frankly I'm more surprised they're supporting Marxists.) Fran Townsend is...

Status of Democrats for Life Questioned After Pro-Life Criticism
The status of Democrats for Life of America is in doubt after the organization spent the year coming under fire from numerous pro-life groups for its role supporting ObamaCare. The organization was the only pro-life group to support the bill, which allows Abortion funding and has Rationing concerns, and it maintained weak Abortion funding limits in the Legislation were sufficient to allay the concerns hundreds of other pro-life groups presented. Democrats for Life came under additional criticism...

Stephen Sweeney stepping down from Gloucester County freeholder board
Stephen Sweeney is one busy guy. As president of the New Jersey Senate, the Gloucester County Democrat travels throughout the Garden State, shepherds party lawmakers into line, and alternately battles and compromises with Gov. Christie. He has stepped in as acting Governor twice in the last year, most recently while Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno have been out of state following last weekend's snowstorm. He holds a full-time job as an organizer for Ironworkers Union Local 399 and also serve...

Answering progressive fears about filibuster reform
The window to change Senate rules opens just one week from now, on January 5th. With that date rapidly approaching, at Daily Kos we are stepping up our efforts to support rules reform with a variety of actions over the next week. You can join those efforts now by signing our petition to make the Filibuster a real filibuster. Based on comments I have seen on blogs and Social Networking sites, there is still some trepidation among Progressives about the campaign to reform Senate rules. Here are ...

Voters coming around to Limbaugh's point of view on wanting Obama failure
Image by fofurasfelinas via Flickr CNN: President Barack Obama enters the new year with a growing number of Americans pessimistic about his policies and a growing number rooting for him to fail, according to a new National Poll. Full poll results [pdf] But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that while a majority of the public says Republican control of the House of Representatives is good for the country, only one in four say the GOP will do a better j...